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bateau59
Contributor
Contributor

bug: vCenter no longer sends SMTP mail notifications after update, and workaround

This has been around since I at least 6.5 I think (and must have been reported countless times, just did not find it).

Am on VMUG, so I can't submit a "real" bug report. Just hoping someone from VMWare picks this up and repairs it.  And also hoping it might help others.

Symptoms:

Every time one does an update of vCenter, SMTP mails/mail alerts are no longer sent.

Cause:

The fault is in a wrong update of the underlying submit.cf during the vCenter update.

Workaround:

A rather complicated workaround is mentioned here: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/54375

The easier workaround is here (screen names are from 7.0, they might have been different in earlier versions, but the process is totally identical):

  1. In vSphere Client, go to vCenter Server Settings (in the configure tab of the vsphere top level)
  2. click EDIT (right on the screen). The "Edit vCenter general settings"  screen will open.
  3. in section Mail, change Mail server to something else (may even be an invalid server, it just has to have the right format), and save
  4. click EDIT again,
  5. in section Mail, change Mail server to the correct server, and save

Mails will work again. Also, all outstanding mails will get sent immediately.

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ZibiM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks!

It worked for me

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